Harry Hunting
by oasis
Summary: Alternative universe. Chased straight into a group of death eaters by the enraged bulldog Ripper, ten-year-old Harry Potter is kidnapped. Perilous adventures follow as Harry fights for his life, the direction of his future and possibly the future of the w


Disclaimer  
  
Unfortunately all the characters of this story belong to the wonderful world of Harry Potter created by the enormous imagination of the talented JK Rowling, I am afraid I am just a poor fan.  
  
Chapter 1.  
  
"It is such a hot afternoon, even with the expensive cooling charm you have here malfoy," yawned the small figure that was Knott, looking up from the card game they were currently engaged in. There were five of them in the room, only five from the glorious band that had made up the death eaters.  
  
"If it's hot in Malfoy manner, the rest of England must be positively boiling," said the tall, muscular figure of Mc'naire, shuffling the cards slowly with his big hands. He had long, thick fingers, the nails of which looked square and sharp. He looked over at the wide French windows, which were unusually for Malfoy manner wide open in an attempt to catch any passing breeze. They were currently sitting in the library of the huge mansion that was Malfoy manner and the proximity of so many books lining the shelves from floor to ceiling gave the room a calm, solemn and rather deadened atmosphere.  
  
"Look at us," said Lucius suddenly, angrily dropping the cards on the table, where they promptly began to grumble amongst themselves. "We used to be the most powerful members of our community, people used to tremble and cower when they saw us. We used to be deputies of the most powerful and cunning man the world has seen for a thousand years. And now we are reduced to playing card games to pass the time and grumbling about the weather!" the others said nothing but nodded in agreement. They were used to lucius' occasional grumblings about the state of the world and frequent assertions about the glory days of when lord voldemort was around.  
  
"Well, we haven't done much muggle torturing lately," said Mc'nair in an attempt to cheer lucius. "I am getting fed up of just executing dangerous creatures, they can't beg you for mercy as you put the cruciatus curse on them or look horrified as they come out of the imperious curse to see a knife clutched in their hand and their nearest and dearest in pieces at their feet. I have missed that look," said Mc'nair his gaze distant, a gigantic grin on his craggy face.  
  
"All that power, the power of life and death held in our hands," affirmed Knott.  
  
"Lets do it now" said Crabbe in his monotonous, gruff voice.  
  
"To make it more exciting," said Lucius, his pale face lighting up "Lets go as close as we can to the house of the boy who should have died, a few alohamoras and some silencing charms should make sure no one disturbs us."  
  
****  
  
"I'm bored," wined Dudley kicking a stone in front of him.  
  
"Me too," agreed Piers Polkis.  
  
"Me three," said Gordon Jones, another of Dudley's four-member gang.  
  
"What's the point of having gotten your aunt to lend us the big dog if there's nothing to chase?" Added Piers.  
  
"Well, it was your fault for letting that cat get away. I was having a lot of fun seeing Ripper chase it all the way up and down the street, his jaws open, once or twice he got so close to it I thought he was going to bite its leg off," said Gordon.  
  
"Yeah, that was funny," sniggered Malcolm.  
  
"But it wasn't my fault it got away!" Shouted piers raising his fists. "It leaped over the fence and then when I tried to send Ripper in there to get it to come out again, that old bat Mrs figg chased me away with a broom."  
  
"I'm scared," said Gordon pretending to faint from fear.  
  
"Will you two stop that!" said Dudley kicking his stone harder "Or I'll think about kicking you instead. It's so boring, summer holidays are supposed to be fun, I was looking forward to them for the last two months. Now, the TV's broken, my favourite programme got cancelled and there's not even a cat to chase!"  
  
"Well, we could play foot ball or go to the park," said Gordon rather tentatively.  
  
"Nah, too much energy and . . . boring" said Piers and Dudley together.  
  
"And there comes your cousin with the shopping your mum sent him to get," said Piers, his face lighting up with anticipation, "We could chase him instead of the cat."  
  
"But he's got the ice cream," said Dudley "I heard mum tell him to get some." They ran towards the approaching boy. Although as a rule Dudley hated running, he always seemed to find untapped reserves of energy when it came to food and was always amongst the first at the school dinner queue. "Harry, give me the ice cream!"  
  
"Aunt Petunia told me to bring them to her," said the small boy stubbornly, hitching his bags so that he could push his selotaped glasses more firmly onto his nose. "What are you lot doing here, skulking around near Mrs Fig's anyway? I would have thought you'd be gone to bully some of the little kids around the neighbourhood," said Harry, taking his life into his hands, if Dudley and his goons were in a really bad mood he would be in for it but at the moment he didn't care. He was hot and tired after the long walk to and from the shops in the stifling afternoon heat. He had almost made it to number four without encountering any problems and now Dudley would be getting him into trouble with aunt Petunia once again.  
  
"We have been waiting for you," said piers threateningly. "Give the food now, or we'll set ripper on you."  
  
"Aunt Petunia needs them for the party later on," said Harry, backing away from the four large boys.  
  
"You asked for it, ripper! get him," said Dudley. Ripper who'd for once ignored Harry and had been content to sit quietly after chasing the cat for so long at once got up, tired or not he did not like that puny boy. Like his mistress he thought drowning was perfect for runts like Harry and given a direct order to attack, how could he resist?  
  
"Dudley, call him off, both your aunt and mother will kill me if I don't get back to them with the shopping," said Harry backing off. As ripper came towards him, his big, yellow, dagger sharp teeth bared, Harry forgot all about aunt petunia's fury at his delay, dropped the shopping and ran for his life. All too well, he remembered how the week previously, he had been chased by ripper into a tree and had to stay there until after midnight or be mauled to death. He was both angry and humiliated every time he thought of this incident and how Dudley laughed from the window, or when uncle Vernon had said that would teach him some manners, or when aunt Marge had ordered ripper to stay by the tree, blocking Harry's only route of escape.  
  
"Should be a good chase," said piers as if he was commentating on a football match. "any bets on how far he can get before ripper catches him?"  
  
"I give it two minutes, ripper is fast" said Dudley, starting to run so that he could watch ripper from afar.  
  
"He is a fast runner though," said Gordon. "and he always has an uncanny way of escaping just when you think you've got him, remember that time we were chasing him, we had him surrounded, and then some how he managed to get onto the roof, I mean how did that happen?"  
  
"No idea," said Dudley already starting to pant with exhaustion "I wish ripper would hurry up though."  
  
Meanwhile the topic of their conversation was wishing the exact opposite. Harry was running as fast as his rather short skinny legs would carry him and was fast running out of both strength and breath. It was a blisteringly hot afternoon, the sun was a burning white orb in the blue, cloud free sky. As Harry ran his t-shirt stuck to his back, his feet got more hot in his battered trainers until he could almost feel steam rising out of them. The streets were empty of any passers-by apart from the dog and the five boys, it seemed every one was staying inside their cool air-conditioned houses, out of the heat. Maybe I can hide in some one's garden, thought Harry as he panted down the street, until those brutes and ripper get tired of chasing me and go somewhere else. However, most of the gardens had high fences that would be difficult to leap over especially when he was out of breath. In several, small children were kicking footballs or lounging around eating ice cream. They watched the small boy running along desperately looking around for somewhere to hide and laughed, pointing at his baggy t-shirt that reached half way down to his thighs, at his too long trousers that kept flopping around him as he ran and which he had to occasionally roll up his waist. "You can't come in here," they shouted, pointing at his selotaped glasses, and when they saw ripper hard on his heels they called "Get him boy!" as if it was a sport.  
  
They pounded down another street, Harry started to gasp for breath, he had a stitch on his left side that felt as if a knife was stuck there. "Dudley, call him off!" shouted Harry over his shoulder again.  
  
"We've come all this way, do you think we will stop now?" cried piers polkis from the other end of the street. Harry didn't know how Dudley and the other boys had kept up with his furious pace but was glad to see they were all nearly doubled over with pain, Dudley clutching his ribs with both hands, seemingly unable to speak. Ripper was now so close to Harry that he could feel the brute's hot breath on his legs, he could hear the creature's loud deep breathing that seemed to say, when I get hold of you boy, you will pay for making me run so far in this heat.  
  
"no, go away," shouted Harry defiantly as he entered magnolia crescent. At last he saw some people out in the street. It was a group of about five people who seemed to be huddled together discussing some thing very animatedly. "please help me," shouted Harry, desperately flinging himself into the middle of the group.  
  
"What is going on here?" said a tall man with silver-blond hair in an authoritative, cultured voice that even seemed to stop ripper in his mad headlong dash for Harry. Dudley and his gang had stopped just inside magnolia crescent, trying to look innocent, as if they had stumbled into this by accident, they were not stupid enough to try and attack Harry when a group of adults were near by. "I asked you to explain what is going on here." Said the voice again hauling out Harry from where he was still lying at the feet of several of the men.  
  
"I-I was running be-because Dudley, that's my cousin and those boys told that dog, Ripper, to-to attack me," gabbled Harry breathlessly.  
  
"I see," said the man seeming to take in the whole street from the anxious, panting boys to the huge foaming dog several paces away with one piercing glance. "muggle fools, nothing better to do than to chase one another, parents would be glad if some of them never came back. What do you say mc-nair?" 2 of the men cracked their knuckles with anticipation and started to walk towards Dudley's gang who took one look at the huge men and ran, their tiredness forgotten, ripper running before them. All the men laughed, the man holding Harry smiled, his lip curling in a sneer. Harry tried to free himself but the man was holding him in an iron grip.  
  
"Lucius, look at the boy, he has the same vivid green eyes, the same messy hair as our infamous Mr potter," said another man in a broad Scottish accent. "and look here," as the man stretched out a massive hand to lift up the fringe that covered Harry's scar, all the men seem to straighten up and scrutinise him slowly from head to foot, their glances for some reason lingering on his lightening shaped scar. This was a legacy of the car crash that had killed his parents, although the odd shape had always fascinated him, Harry could not imagine why these strange men were so interested by it.  
  
"A case of looking for a knut and discovering a hundred galleons," drawled lucius.  
  
"Please sir, you can let go of me now, they've gone, thanks for your help," said Harry coming uncertainly to a holt as all the men continued to stare at him unblinkingly. He was getting the distinct uncomfortable feeling that he may have just escaped from the frying pan only to land in the fire.  
  
"Not so fast, Mr potter," drawled lucius. "You will be coming with us."  
  
"but my aunt will be furious, I am already late in bringing in the shopping and she is preparing for Dudley's birthday party tomorrow," Said Harry. All his attempts to escape from the man had failed, he tried to kick and scratch the man but could not loosen the grip on his arm. Now several of the other men were also restraining him. There was no possibility of escape.  
  
"They will just have to get along without you. I can't wait to see how that muggle loving fool takes this news, snatching the boy-who-lived from where he was supposed to be completely safe," sneered Lucius. There were several pops and two bangs like gunshots and the whole group and Harry were gone. 


End file.
